The Winter Olympics

The move toward a winter version of the Olympics began in 1908 when
figure skating made an appearance at the Summer Games in London. Ten-time
world champion Ulrich Salchow of Sweden, who originated the backwards, one
revolution jump that bears his name, and Madge Syers of Britain were the
first singles champions. Germans Anna Hubler and Heinrich Berger won the
pairs competition.

Organizers of the 1916 Summer Games in Berlin planned to introduce a
“Skiing Olympia,” featuring nordic events in the Black Forest,
but the Games were cancelled after the outbreak of World War I in
1914.

The Games resumed in 1920 at Antwerp, Belgium, where figure skating
returned and ice hockey was added as a medal event. Sweden's Gillis
Grafstrom and Magda Julin took individual honors, while Ludovika and
Walter Jakobsson were the top pair. In hockey, Canada won the gold medal
with the United States second and Czechoslovakia third.

Despite the objections of Modern Olympics' founder Baron Pierre de
Coubertin and the resistance of the Scandinavian countries, which had
staged their own Nordic championships every four or five years from
1901-26 in Sweden, the International Olympic Committee sanctioned an
“International Winter Sports Week” at Chamonix, France, in
1924. The 11-day event, which included nordic skiing, speed skating,
figure skating, ice hockey and bobsledding, was a huge success and was
retroactively called the first Olympic Winter Games.

Seventy years after those first cold weather Games, the 17th edition of
the Winter Olympics took place in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994. The event
ended the four-year Olympic cycle of staging both Winter and Summer Games
in the same year and began a new schedule that calls for the two Games to
alternate every two years.

a–The 1940 Winter Games are
originally scheduled for Sapporo, but Japan resigns as host in 1937 when
the Sino-Japanese war breaks out. St. Moritz is the next choice, but the
Swiss feel that ski instructors should not be considered professionals
and the IOC withdraws its offer. Finally, Garmisch-Partenkirchen is
asked to serve again as host, but the Germans invade Poland in 1939 and
the Games are eventually cancelled.

b–Germany and Japan are
allowed to rejoin the Olympic community for the first time since World
War II. Though a divided country, the Germans send a joint East-West
team through 1964.

c–The Soviet Union (USSR)
participates in its first Winter Olympics and takes home the most
medals, including the gold medal in ice hockey.

d–East Germany and West
Germany officially send separate teams for the first time and will
continue to do so through 1988.

e–The IOC grants the 1976
Winter Games to Denver in May 1970, but in 1972 Colorado voters reject a
$5 million bond issue to finance the undertaking. Denver immediately
withdraws as host and the IOC selects Innsbruck, the site of the 1964
Games, to take over.

f–Germany sends a single
team after East and West German reunification in 1990 and the USSR
competes as the Unified Team after the breakup of the Soviet Union in
1991.

g–The IOC moves the Winter
Games' four-year cycle ahead two years in order to separate them from
the Summer Games and alternate Olympics every two years.